I’ve had a few days back at home. I’m fully recovered from the jet-lag and general lack of sleep. The non-stop geek-fest that is Cisco Live is now over. With some time to look back at everything that happened in San Diego, I’m blown away by how this might have been one of the best events I’ve been to in 16 years and how it’s too bad that it’s going to be a whole year before we get to do it again. Here are some of the things that made a huge impression on many of the attendees I spoke to that week. Read More »

As organizations work to evolve their IT infrastructure into a cloud-based model, one concept becomes self-evident: connecting users to the cloud with confidence. In order to achieve that, any virtual infrastructure must have the ability to pool multiple physical devices into a single virtual instance, then expand and contract that instance simultaneously and instantaneously based on application, location or line of business requirements. Such needs further emphasize the importance of design flexibility and scalable deployment models within the WAN. Cisco WAAS provides exactly that and more. But, don’t just take our words for it. Hear directly from our customers at Cisco Live this week. Read More »

On my recent road trip from Vancouver to Whistler Village, I was stunned by the breathtaking beauty of British Columbia. Its lush green trees, majestic waterfront fjord, and picturesque hill tops could easily be mistaken as oil paintings by Claude Monet. Along the drive up the Sea-to-Sky Highway, I stopped at a fast food vendor for a quick budget meal only to be captivated by a million dollar view – see my photo on the right.

As I gazed from the rigid mountain top and snowy peaks to the clusters of cumulus clouds floating serenely above, it reminded me of our upcoming launch in San Diego and solutions that Cisco will introduce to enable the world of many clouds.

Last November, Cisco Global Cloud Index forecasted “greater than 50% of all workloads will be processed in the cloud by 2014.” Over one-third of data center traffic, as highlighted in the report, will be cloud based. As a result, download and upload speeds as well as latencies are vital measures to assess network capabilities for cloud readiness.

In a recent Global Cloud Networking Survey conducted by Cisco with more than 1,300 IT professionals, 37% of the respondents cited “a cloud-ready network” as the biggest element in designing an infrastructure for cloud deployments. And from my previous post Journey to Cisco Live San Diego, we identified the key requirements a cloud delivery solution must address. Today, we’ll explore how the Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) portfolio can help achieve a scalable cloud-based model.

Recently, I heard a beautiful Beethoven Quartet Opus 131 piece played in an office not too far from mine. Its rhythm was so tranquil that the notes visually sang in my ears and brought up images of Ike sitting behind Cisco WAAS Central Manager listening to classical music on his headphones. (“Who is Ike?” You may ask. On the surface, Ike is your everyday IT guy that wins the girl’s heart in Ike wins with a vendor you can trust. Behind the scene, Ike is the hero that keeps productivity high and end-user satisfied, all working together, to propel his organization ahead of the competition.)

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